How To Write A Research Statement: Identifying An Audience

When you are writing a research paper, it is extremely important for you to identify your audience. The audience is the group of people who are intended to read your research paper. Typical audiences for an academic institution include:

The professor who has assigned the project

Your advisor could be a potential audience member

Your peers if you are going to have to peer review the assignment

An evaluation panel if this is for a thesis or dissertation

These are just a couple of the most common audiences for a research paper. There are important elements of the audience that it is vital to know and document as well. Some of the most important aspects of appropriately identifying your audience include:

You will want to identify the age group of the various anticipated audience members

The education and experience of the anticipated audience members will also help to play a role in the composition of a research statement

The exposure of your audience to your specific topic and focus material will influence the way that you word your research statement

Any biases or preconceived notions of your subject matter will also influence the crafting of your research statement

All of these various elements will help to influence the ways in which you are going to present the research statement to your intended audience. It is important to consider all of these various pieces of the puzzle because of the fact that you are going to have to appeal to their interests and experience. The experience and assumptions of your intended audience will dictate the wording and presentation of the material that is all through out your paper. You want to avoid offending your audience; however, you also want to avoid only presenting vague and common knowledge information.

The only way to understand the methods in which you should present your research statement and content for your final product is through the identification of the intended audience. Furthermore, anyone who is not a part of the intended audience will be able to understand the context of the research paper better when the intended audience is identified. While the overall project might not have been written for all ages, genders, and experience levels with the materials, the audience members will be better prepared for the level of professional presentation that are involved. This will help readers to further identify if this is a good paper for him or her to engage in the reading of.